fast and curious

May 2014

I haven’t used the grill since last summer, so I was a little rusty this weekend, but Henry’s awesome grilling lesson got me right back on track AND taught me a bunch of new tricks.

I went to the local grocery store and grabbed Worcestershire sauce and Montreal Steak seasoning - we had both in the pantry, but they were expired. If this is the first time you are grilling for the summer, remember to check your “best by” dates! I also bought a couple T-bone steaks - the stars of the show - and some red peppers to snack on.

Henry recommends marinating for a full day. I didn’t have that much time, so I cut off the excess fat, covered both sides of the steaks with the sauce and seasoning as soon as I got home and dropped them in a ziploc bag.

While the steaks marinated, I hosed off the the grill and prepped the charcoal chimney. We didn’t have any newspaper handy, so I used a brown paper bag - it did the job. I poured the charcoal, lit the paper and set a timer for 20 minutes.

Once the charcoal was hot enough, I spread it out in the grill and placed the grate - scraping it with a wire brush to clean off last year’s residue. Following Henry’s advice, I waited until I could hold my hand an inch above the grate for a second or two before putting the steaks down. The flames flared up a few times, but covering the grill for 15-30 seconds each time took care of the that. I rotated the steaks after 2 and a half minutes and flipped them after 4. Henry’s tip about looking for moisture before flipping worked well for me.

In all honesty, I had a hard time motivating myself to tackle this week’s challenge. Give me squats, jumping jacks, something else, anything else -- because, when it comes to tummies, my preferred activities revolve a bit more around yummy snacks and beverages than around crunches.

I roped my roommate Libby into the challenge and, equipped with our yoga mats, iPad, and vitamin-D fueled energy -- we set out to strengthen our cores.

It’s hard not to adjust your perspective when cheery Kira comes on screen. She soon had us doing all sorts of creative exercises that could be adjusted for different skill levels. And, to my (pleasant!) surprise, she showed us several moves to that didn’t require us to “sit-up.”

Near the top of my list was the plank -- a great exercise for beginners and experienced exercisers, alike. Not only do planks work your obliques, they improve overall core strength and increase balance. A big plus: you don’t find yourself compromising technique (and hurting your back!) in order to feel the burn.

It’s May. Besides being the National Barbecue Month as well as the National Blood Pressure Month (who knew!) - it’s the month that brings us Mother’s Day, likely the most important holiday May has to offer.

This year Mother’s Day is even more special than any other year to me - I’m making my own Mother’s Day card. My mother of course would never believe her son would sign up to make a card with his own hands - I think she lost her faith in my crafting skills when I was in 3rd grade. But, with the encouragement of Maggie from Curious, I’m totally going to do it.

The task is daunting. Before watching the DIY Mother’s Day Card & Frame lesson, I had no idea about any of the tools or where to start. I went to a crafts store, pulled up the lesson on my Curious iPhone app just to remind myself what it was I should be buying. After coming home with a glue gun and a bunch of glitter, my wife (to my surprise) informed me that we already have all these things at home. Apparently she has “crafts box” laying in plain sight, that I didn’t even know existed.

Time to get to work. I first put a nice patterned sticker at the top and bottom of the card to “frame” it. I then used the letters to spell out “H a p p y M o m s D a y” (ran out of letter ‘h’ to spell Mother’s - oops, poor planning), and finally my favorite part - the glue gun. My first time using it turned out less than stellar - turns out the gun gets really hot, and the glue hardens very quickly. I had to put quite a bit extra to get all the glitter to stick. I also made a bit of a mess with it. My advice - put the glitter down as soon as you lay the glue.

I’m rather proud of the result. My mom of course would never believe that I made it myself. But my assignment submission and this blog post should totally convince her :)

In preparation for this Mother’s Day, we’ve pulled together our Top 5 Lessons for a Fun-Filled Mother’s Day. Use these lessons to shower your mom with love -- whether by serving her breakfast in bed or gifting her delightful homemade soaps.

Peruse the lessons and see which ones jump out at you. Then, start planning and make this Mother’s Day one for the books!

Don’t forget to tweet @Curious and let us know: which lesson is inspiring your Mother’s Day?

Time to celebrate mom! We're excited to bring you our Top 5 Lessons for a Fun-Filled Mother's Day. We hope your mom has an awesome Mother's Day!

Banana PancakesHoneysuckle Catering’s delicious twist on a pancake recipe will delight your mom on Mother’s Day morning. Surprise her with breakfast in bed, or whip up a batch together in your pajamas!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! We are getting in on the fun by encouraging you all to recognize your favorite teachers on Curious. If you publicly recognize a Curious teacher via Twitter, we will give them a $5 tip on your behalf, and also give you $5 to spend on any of their lessons.

Here's how (you will need a Twitter account):

Send a tweet in the rough format of: "Thanks to @curious teacher @summertomato for being awesome! #iamcurious #thankateacher"

Link to their Curious teacher profile at www.curious.com/teachername.

If you don't know the teacher's Twitter handle just use their Curious teacher name.

Email your tweet to support@curious.com so we can credit your account $5 of coins.

We will tip the teacher $5.

Show your love for our amazing teachers! Without them Curious would be pretty boring...--jsk

When Maggie informed me that my blog post for Curious 52 this week would cover a salsa lesson, I wept like a child. She calmly explained that she meant salsa the food, and that in any event Thai had already covered salsa the dance in week 3.

Serendipitously, a friend of mine then invited me to his house for a fajita dinner. I shopped using the attached ingredient list, but I didn’t manage to actually take the lesson before I got to his house (let alone make the salsa). Fortunately, Easy Homemade Salsa taught me how in about three minutes. There were some nice touches I hadn’t used before, like red bell pepper and olive oil. And the close-up video of each of the steps was helpful, especially watching how an expert de-seeds a jalapeno pepper:

I was in an unfamiliar kitchen and making salsa for 6+ (while reluctantly sharing a knife and cutting board), so i’d say the whole process took me about 30 minutes (including taking the lesson!). Here is my project with some of the delectable result:

So aside from how to make salsa, what did i learn from this?

Like Maggie, I am quite the procrastinator (I actually knew this already).

Watch Learn Eat can teach salsa fast.

Chopping tomatoes is slow. I really want one of these vegetable choppers:

Today Curious is celebrating our first year of public life--our birthday, so to speak. Curious launched on May 1st, 2013 with the hope that there were other people in the world like us. People who loved to learn things, and who felt learning could be just as fun as watching a movie or playing a video game. Plus we were pretty sure thousands of amazing teachers would be eager to reach the world's lifelong learners.

Well, I guess we were right.

In one short year over 1000 teachers have joined the Curious revolution, and produced over 6000 lessons so far--with hundreds more added every week.

Those lessons have already been viewed over 2 million times. We get to watch the vibrant community of Curious learners and teachers blossoming more every day--and it feels really great. It's those teachers and learners that are why we have had such a successful year, and why I'm pretty confident there are a lot of birthday celebrations in our future.

To all of you who have believed in the Curious way of lifelong learning--THANK YOU! Or should I say, happy birthday? Think of it as the first year of the rest of your life of learning.--jsk

P.S. I hope you enjoy the above video, which gives you a peak at Curious World Headquarters and our unbelievable team of passionate employees. Without them, Curious would still be just a twinkle in our eye. Here's a HUGE fist bump, you guys!

Curious turns 1 this week! It’s been an exciting, interesting, and of course a learning-filled year.

In honor of our launch a year ago and all the spring/summer babies in your life, we’ve chosen our Top 5 Lessons for a Perfect Birthday Celebration. Use these lessons to plan and throw a festive birthday bash. We’ve got you covered!

Don’t forget to tweet @Curious and let us know: which lesson(s) did you try out?

Welcome to our Top 5 Lessons for a Perfect Birthday Celebration! We’re excited to help you put together an awesome party for your friends and family born in the summer months.